Osterby House

Moses Rogers was born in 1793 and was one of the first Methodist ministers in Huntington.  Rogers purchased the property in 1854. The property included a large eighteenth century house.  Bernard Osterby purchased the four-acre property in March 1890 from the heirs of Moses Rogers for $450.

In 1888 year, Jacob Jacobson had filed a complaint against Bernard Osterby for selling liquor without a license.  A trial on the complaint was set to begin, but Jacobson did not appear. The case was dismissed, but Osterby was immediately re-arrested on a previous charge of disturbing the peace. Osterby continued to sell liquor illegally.  After a trial before Justice Strawson in Northport, he was convicted on that charge in 1890 and fined $50.  

On January 15, 1900, the entire house was destroyed by fire and one of the boarders did not make it out of the house.  The fire may have started when a gas lamp exploded.  Fifteen people were staying in the house at the time, including two children.  The Osterbys lost all their belongings except for a small box of papers.

The existing brick house was built to replace the house destroyed in the fire in 1900.  Bernard Osterby died in May 1910.  His widow re-married by 1920.  Mary Osterby sold the property in 1921 to Raymond Bloomer. In 1948, Jane Bloomer Goverts inherited the property from her uncle Raymond Royce Kent, who died in Florida.  It is unclear who Raymond Royce Kent was or how he acquired the property from Raymond Bloomer.   Eugene Mudge purchased the house with one acre in 1957.  

Mudge remodeled and expanded the house in the 1970s.  The current owners acquired it in 2000 and expanded the kitchen. The small brick house remains intact and distinct, a relic of the property’s colorful past. The Town of Huntington placed a historical marker at the house in 2011.

Source: 

Hughes, Robert C. “The Osterby House. Fort Salonga.” Huntington History, 23 Mar. 2011, https://huntingtonhistory.com/2011/03/23/the-osterby-house-fort-salonga